100% Corn bread (Gluten Free) Recipe

Cornbread has been made and baked by cultures and civilizations for thousands of years. This occurred in South, Central and North America where the corn plant originated. It’s a very popular bread in the southern United States, and is a standard accompaniment to chicken, fish and almost every barbecue. What many people don’t know or appreciate is that corn meal is 100% gluten free. That makes it a perfect ingredient for gluten free baking and it’s easy to do in your bread machine.

This recipe is a batter bread or cake bread recipe. You will not see a dough ball form in the bread machine, but rather a batter that appears wet and loose. Don’t add any more dry ingredients to get a dough ball. It’s supposed to look like a batter. You can always tell a batter bread when you see baking soda and/or baking powder in the ingredient list. There is no yeast so this bread batter will not rise before baking. The rise occurs towards the end of the baking cycle. The standard test to know when a batter bread is done is to insert a toothpick into the center of the loaf. If it comes out wet, the loaf needs more time. If it comes out dry, you’re done.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups of cornmeal (Make sure it’s the granular cornmeal and not a cornmeal or corn mix that has been ground to a flourlike consistency)

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 egg

4 tbsp. butter

1 ½ cups of plain yogurt or sour cream or buttermilk or milk. You can also combine them any way you like to total 1 ½ cups

4 tbsp. honey

Add water to get a batter-like consistency up to one cup

DIRECTIONS:

1

Place all of the ingredients into the bread machine bread pan in the order indicated. Select the cake bread or batter bread setting. If your machine doesn’t have one, select the dough setting but take the batter out before the dough setting begins the rise cycle. If you have a pizza or pasta dough setting you could use that as well. Those two settings do not have a rise cycle.

2

Preheat the oven to 400° F./205° c.

3

Generously butter a 12 x 12-inch glass baking dish and pour the batter into the dish. When oven reaches temperature place on the center baking rack and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Check the cornbread after 15 minutes and test the center with a toothpick and if it comes out dry remove from oven, let it rest for 10 minutes. Otherwise, give it another 5 minutes. Slice and serve.

Ingredients

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups of cornmeal (Make sure it’s the granular cornmeal and not a cornmeal or corn mix that has been ground to a flourlike consistency)

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 egg

4 tbsp. butter

1 ½ cups of plain yogurt or sour cream or buttermilk or milk. You can also combine them any way you like to total 1 ½ cups

4 tbsp. honey

Add water to get a batter-like consistency up to one cup

Directions

DIRECTIONS:

1

Place all of the ingredients into the bread machine bread pan in the order indicated. Select the cake bread or batter bread setting. If your machine doesn’t have one, select the dough setting but take the batter out before the dough setting begins the rise cycle. If you have a pizza or pasta dough setting you could use that as well. Those two settings do not have a rise cycle.

2

Preheat the oven to 400° F./205° c.

3

Generously butter a 12 x 12-inch glass baking dish and pour the batter into the dish. When oven reaches temperature place on the center baking rack and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Check the cornbread after 15 minutes and test the center with a toothpick and if it comes out dry remove from oven, let it rest for 10 minutes. Otherwise, give it another 5 minutes. Slice and serve.

Steve Nubie has been writing professionally for 38 years. He is a Chef and has traveled across Asia and Europe studying language, culture and cuisine. He instructs culinary classes in the Culinary School at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois and has written extensively on cuisine, cooking, diet and nutrition. He is a published author of 10 books including a cookbook and continues to write on subjects related to culinary trends.

I’m with Dsul, this recipe is way off. I followed it exactly and it made dry dough. I had to add at least a cup of water just to make it soft enough to pour into a pan and it was still more like dough than batter.

A possible problem is that cornmeal comes in two forms and many grocery stores label both forms the same way: “cornmeal.” One form is very granular and will blend well with the 1 ½ cups of yogurt. The other form has a flour consistency and will not blend as well using only yogurt as a liquid additive. The solution is to pursue the option of adding water to get a batter-like consistency up to one cup.

Hi Steve,
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I just made the bread and it’s cooling off but I had a bit of a problem with the batter result. It was more the texture of a dough than a batter and even the dough seemed too dry so I added more milk until the ingredients mixed in the machine and the texture was more like a batter. I put in the oven and I think it’s going to be alright but I’m wondering if the proportions on your list might be wrong? Thank you. Best regards, Saul